Most youths in Kathmandu wrinkle up their nose and exclaim, "Nepali movies? Sorry, not for me!"[break] In places like Kathmandu, which is flooded with Bollywood and Hollywood movies, today´s young adults shun ´home-produced´ films and opt for Hindi or English movies. Nepali films have failed to appeal to the new generation. Even at the mention of Nepali films, young folks laugh at them.
The urban lads and lasses love going to the theaters to watch Hindi and English movies only.
"I hate watching Nepali films because they don´t have the contents and flavor I want in a movie. That´s why I have a range of great English movies stored in my laptop," says Subhash Shrestha, 23, a university student.
Shrestha says that Nepali movies have been following the same trend for many decades now.
Truly said. You can almost predict and expect what Nepali films have to offer. They have ludicrous story lines, a few action scenes, dances, unlimited emotional drama and
nothing else.
It seems that for Nepali filmmakers, these are the components required to make a blockbuster.
"Perhaps that´s why Nepali movies neither have been able to give out something new to the audiences nor have they come out of the typical ideas of cinematography," Shrestha adds.
Although Shrestha-like youngsters regard Nepali films as traditional, monotonous, and even outdated, there are other folks who think film industries in Nepal have made a tremendous progress in recent years.
"Our mind has been infected with negative ideas and self-directed negative vision only; we don´t examine our home grown products seriously. We drag ourselves to thoughtless conclusions which are not necessarily correct. I believe Nepali film industries have come a long way," says Ramesh Khatiwada, 22, a student.
For Khatiwada, new trends have already made their way into Nepali film industry beginning with Bhusan Dahal´s film Kagbeni.
"Kagbeni is a superb movie from every angle. I hope we Nepali people will get to watch such kind of and even better movies in the future," says Khatiwada.
Khatiwada believes it won´t take that long for Nepali movies to find their place in the international market if quality is maintained like it was done in Kagbeni.
However, to change the negative mind-set of today´s urban adolescents toward Nepali films might not be that easy. There´s so much negative talks going around about Nepali films that even in the case a youth may love a Nepali movie, they find it pretty hard to appreciate it, particularly in the group of friends who more talk about Hindi and English movies. Maybe today´s city youths think having a liking for Nepali movies is like inviting labels of ´being traditional´ or ´conservative´.
A film director Suman Dahal claims that Nepali movies in recent years have been able to attract unexpected audiences-even those who used to shy away from them. According to Dahal, most people who look down on Nepali movies do so without actually watching them.
"Youngsters, without actually watching Nepali films, refer to them as worthless and call the people who watch them ´pakhe´," says Dahal.
Dahal says urban youths have been highly influenced by the lifestyles of Hollywood and Bollywood and they try to simulate each and everything that they see in the movies.
Needless to say, comparing Nepali movies with the movies of Bollywood and Hollywood may not be justifiable as the inventment in the latter is far higher. However, Nepali film industry is doing its best to update itself and make films as per the need of today, according to Dahal.
"We have been trying our best to set out the best scenery and the digital quality picture. However, youngsters consider Nepali movies as worthless without observing the effort we have put in," laments Dahal. "I think youngsters should first see the movies before making any negative comments."
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